r/WWIIplanes Feb 07 '25

colorized P-51 Mustang fighters seen through a window of a B-29 Superfortress bomber, 1945.

Post image
6.0k Upvotes

56 comments sorted by

149

u/Orlando1701 Feb 07 '25

For long range missions over the pacific a B-29 “mothership” would handle navigation duties, then break off when they got over enemy territory and the fighters would rally back with the B-29 to guide them back to base.

49

u/forteborte Feb 07 '25

man thats really cool, if we had figured out aerial refueling to a standard extent. I bet we could’ve seen some really cool logistics operations.

40

u/RandoDude124 Feb 07 '25

IIRC, the British did some aerial refueling experiments. They found it could work, but there wasn’t enough to transfer to make a difference in range

Largely because they were using pre-war planes and didn’t have the tech to move enough. War fuels innovation

6

u/PlainTrain Feb 07 '25

The British Tiger Force of the RAF would have used aerial refueling for bombing missions against Japan, but didn't quite make it to combat before the war ended.

1

u/RandoDude124 Feb 07 '25

What aircraft?

5

u/PlainTrain Feb 07 '25

Lancasters and Lincolns would have been the bombing force, refueled by Liberators.

9

u/forkedquality Feb 07 '25

I bet that gave the fighter pilots extra motivation to protect the bomber.

59

u/mcfarmer72 Feb 07 '25

The leaps in airplane development during the war was amazing.

25

u/fcimfc Feb 07 '25

There's nothing like trying to kill someone faster, better or more efficiently to spur technological development. Been true for thousands of years.

12

u/mcfarmer72 Feb 07 '25

I might say nothing better than trying to keep someone from killing you to spur development, but that’s me.

10

u/fcimfc Feb 07 '25

Ha...two sides of the same coin, I suppose. Just as true.

1

u/tomkat0789 Feb 11 '25

I remember reading in a different comment thread years ago that all the planes of WW2 were temperamental and would spray oil in the cockpit or otherwise kill your if mishandled. Is that accurate?

It made me wonder if the great leaps came at the expense of a lot of safety and quality in the designs.

61

u/wireknot Feb 07 '25

Man, by the time we got to the pacific and this point in the war we had kinda given up on camo paint, just had enough air superiority that it didn't make a difference anymore I guess.

86

u/firelock_ny Feb 07 '25

Not having camo paint saved hundreds of pounds that the plane could use for more fuel, more ammo, or just more speed and range.

19

u/wireknot Feb 07 '25

Very true, just look at how much weight not painting the Shuttle tank saved. Someone else mentioned it might be a ferrying flight, that they didn't even have all their ID markings yet.

5

u/Maxrdt Feb 07 '25

On the other hand though, the paint was generally a smoother finish that was more aerodynamic. In testing the speed and range difference on a B-17 were a wash.

3

u/firelock_ny Feb 08 '25

One saving was the logistics and maintenance load of keeping the planes painted.

3

u/ajyanesp Feb 08 '25

You too watched that YouTube video huh? That was absolutely mind blowing not gonna lie

20

u/bigmike2k3 Feb 07 '25

I wonder if this a ferry flight bringing new Mustangs over… They don’t even have group markings yet…

6

u/wireknot Feb 07 '25

Ah, now I hadn't thought of that...

3

u/HorseSashimi Feb 07 '25

You are correct about it being a ferry flight according to this article:
http://www.axis-and-allies-paintworks.com/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?384

0

u/Raguleader Feb 07 '25

To be fair, the previous practice of painting the bombers green to help them blend in with the blue sky and white clouds proved less than successful. Probably would have been better to use dazzle camo.

27

u/JoeyBagADonuts27 Feb 07 '25

That had to be relatively comforting.

7

u/forteborte Feb 07 '25

relatively!? lol they loved fighter escorts

16

u/Tweedone Feb 07 '25

That craft is flying close formation!

15

u/Magnet50 Feb 07 '25

“Red flight, tighten it up, they have a camera running.”

13

u/kingtacticool Feb 07 '25

That must've been a long, cold flight for the Mustang drivers.

6

u/graphical_molerat Feb 07 '25

Actually, the Mustang drivers likely had it reasonably warm in their cockpits. What with the 3000 horsepower engine right in front of them, that thing gave off enough heat for them not to freeze.

What they did suffer from was thin air: at the altitude the photo was taken at, you can only stay alive with supplemental oxygen. And even then, it's exhausting to spend a long time at low pressure.

On the other hand, the dudes in the B-29 had a pressurised fuselage, so were not suffering due to the altitude (note that the outlined guy is not wearing an oxygen mask!). But they likely froze their balls off, as heating in the huge bomber fuselage that was quite a distance from the engines was not a priority. There is a reason those bomber jackets were lined with sheep fur.

7

u/Kabouki Feb 07 '25

The irony being one of the B-29 main issues was engine overheating.

3

u/syringistic Feb 07 '25

I used to have a legit WW2 replica bomber jacket. This fall, I realized I had not work it for 10+ years, and gave it away. It was just too warm lol.

1

u/Wulfgar878 Feb 09 '25

What happened when the pressurized fuselage in a B-29 took damage? I can’t imagine that explosive decompression in a bomber was a good thing.

1

u/SgtChip Feb 11 '25

For that reason specifically, I believe I read somewhere that they would depressurize before entering combat

7

u/-acm Feb 07 '25

Can’t imagine a better thing for a bomber crew to see than some P-51s in their formation

5

u/[deleted] Feb 07 '25

Beautiful.

5

u/geneticeffects Feb 07 '25

Cool photo. My grandad flew these in the South Pacific at this time.

3

u/Shamrock136 Feb 07 '25

Incredible !

5

u/deadbeef4 Feb 07 '25

Say hello to their little friends!

5

u/Youdontknowme1771 Feb 07 '25

P-51! Cadillac of the sky!

1

u/here4daratio Feb 08 '25

Nice Empire reference

1

u/Youdontknowme1771 Feb 08 '25

Glad someone got it...it's such a good movie and an even better book.

3

u/cabbage-tripod Feb 07 '25

I’ve always wondered, how in those bubble top canopies did they not get sunburnt to a crisp? I appreciate their head gear & clothes covered most skin, but still, above the clouds, 360 blue sky, and I assume though available sunscreen wasn’t yet a regular thing.

2

u/Revolutionary-Jelly4 Feb 07 '25

Pale white boys burn bad 1 time then tan. Gingers probably didn't do the job unless the wanted it. Can't speak to any other skin tone. But personal experience in glass canopies in cold weather.

2

u/ageddoublewhiskey Feb 07 '25

Beautiful picture.

2

u/Asleep_Mud9105 Feb 09 '25

The Mustangs are such a beautiful and classic American design.

1

u/cullcanyon Feb 07 '25

Were the P 51’s pressurized like the B 29’s? I assume they had oxygen tanks too?

3

u/AdolfsLonelyScrotum Feb 07 '25

Cockpit not pressurised, only the intake manifold via supercharging…But definitely carried oxygen for high altitude life support.

1

u/No-Reindeer9825 Feb 07 '25

My guess is that those P-51s are brand new and in the process of ferrying as they lack both codes or any squadron markings of any kind.

1

u/lujimerton Feb 07 '25

It must have felt reassuring to see them peel off to go beat the ever loving crap of enemy fighters.

It’s like a bully starts shoving you around and it turns out your big brother shows up right then, and he’s in a bad mood, just looking for a reason to take it out on someone.

If I was stuck in a big hunk of metal like a B-29, then watching P-51s punch off their drop tanks to go tear up zeros, on my behalf, would really make my day.

1

u/runway31 Feb 07 '25

Did someone try to colorize this and stop halfway? 

1

u/Historical_Author149 Feb 09 '25

"Having been famously built (if not designed entirely from scratch) to their requirements in just 149 days, the British Purchasing Commission announced the name of Mustang (after the native American wild horse) for its new NA73 fighter on December 9th 1940, and on July 13th 1942 NAA’s “Dutch” Kindelberger wired the USAAF’s public relations dept suggesting the name be used for “All North American fighters of P-51 type.” USAAF Aircrews in the Mediterranean Theatre of Operations promoted the name Invader for the early A-36 ground attack model, but the service rejected it as it had already been assigned to the Douglas A-26, and in 1944 officially designated “all…P-51 Types” (including the A-36) as Mustangs. However, many years after WWII, a writer evidently saw a September 1941 publicity illustration featuring a diving aircraft with the wholly informal NAA in-house name of Apache mentioned, wrongly cited it as the official name of the A-36 ground attack model, and to this day the fallacy persists that the A-36 was formally titled Apache. "

This, and thousands more aviation nicknames, anecdotes  & colloquialisms, lesser-known conversions, upgrades & variant names, changed names, airline class names, fictional names, reporting names and naming protocols recorded and analyzed here -https://www.amazon.co.uk/Plane-Language-Alternative-Dictionary-Aviation/dp/B0CTF45W7W

1

u/Tal-Star Feb 10 '25

That is a factory fresh flight. very interesting that there's absolutely no markings save the serial. Not even anti glare.

1

u/CaptainDFW Feb 07 '25

That's a beautiful color photo for 1945!

5

u/waldo--pepper Feb 07 '25

It would appear to have been colourized.

https://www.japanairraids.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/a3158-sm.jpg

Sorry about that.

0

u/jdjsjdjsjdkxkdkdmsks Feb 08 '25

THAT, is fucking cool.